Thinking of making this a once a month deal.. I add my reviews to LibraryThing pretty regularly, which I bring over here, where I expand on them, if I had any further thoughts.. With that said… Book reviews!

I was a fan of Prep, read it a few times at least, so when I heard of Wife, I couldn’t wait! After a failed Shelf Awareness (I think) attempt, I was fortunate enough to score a copy from the EarlyReviewers program over at Library Thing. Huzzah!

I had really enjoyed this book. After a while, Alice, the main character, was feeling less like a character, and more like an actual person. She’s flawed, and deals with some very real struggles, but she always tries to stay good. Throughout the book, we see a lot happening to her, and each changes her, and forms who she is.

It’s a very good book overall. Some of her monologue could have been skimmed off, as it felt she was over thinking things, but it didn’t bother me so much. Also, while we see a lot of major events in her life, we also miss other events that I would have liked to see happening. It’s almost a shock when you finish one section, then go to the next, and find out all these things happened.

While I honestly don’t know much about Laura Bush, I couldn’t help but think of her as I read some parts. When she meets and marries into the Blackwell family.. When her husband is elected president.. Just like the real deal, she has to keep up the facade that she is 100% on her husband’s side, that she shares his opinions and thoughts, even though privately, she has disagreements. One of her main disagreements was she wanted to bring home the men and women sent overseas, which gets publicized by the press almost immediately.

Growing up, she’s had to deal with very real issues, and the consequences that they bring. The death of a friend, the loss of a friend.. Abortion, homosexuality, alcohol abuse.. Loss of beloved family members, meeting and dealing with your new in-laws.. Like I said above, she meets each issue as it comes, and she walks away changed, learning from it. She has very real struggles that we can all identify with, in one way or another.

Grift (noun) – a group of methods for obtaining money falsely through the use of swindles, frauds, dishonest gambling, etc.

Ever since she was a child, this is what Marina Marks did. Her method : being a “psychic.” She learned the most common methods, tarot and palm reading, and used them to make money. First, for her mother, to support her habits, then to support herself later on. Realistically, she doesn’t have any psychic gift, just knowledge of the tarot, what the lines on the palm mean, and how to extract information from her clients. Body language, casual conversation, a piece of jewelry, all help her to seem like the real deal.

After saving enough money in Florida, she moves out to California, where people are more accepting of psychics, to start fresh, and to pursue her real goal – a nice nest egg to live off of. After doing a gig at a swanky party, she builds up a client base, each with his or her own story behind them. One is gay, and wants his partner to be more accepting of homosexuality, and to pay more attention to him. One is a married womanizer, but one of his latest conquests is getting too attached. Yet another is married to a man that wants nothing more than a child, even though she’s not too fond of the idea.

As the story goes on, the past catches up to Marina, and coupled with some of her clients getting too attached, she starts having more problems than the expected. On one fateful day, the grift is no more, as her real gift suddenly blooms, and with it, all the pieces start falling into place as she learns to use her gift.

It’s a good story, and it keeps you guessing. I honestly didn’t expect some of the turns that came about in the story, although I kind of guessed, based on the prologue, that her natural psychic talent would come into play eventually. I thought it’s a good book, and I hope other readers won’t be disappointed with it.

I wasn’t too thrilled with this one, unfortunately, and that’s because of the writing style.

The story is told, and narrated by, a 9 year old boy, and that was my turn off. While I appreciate the attempt for realism, the purposeful misspellings and run away trains of thought wasn’t really my cup of tea. The story was the only thing that grabbed me long enough to finish it, though you could guess what was going to happen pretty fast.

As someone said on Library Thing, even though it was a short book already, less would have been better.

After I finished, I couldn’t help but think : boy does she like to eat! This short, quirky novel is not about eating disorders, which I wanted to point out first. It’s about Fenfang, a 21 year old “whose youth just started,” sick of living on her sweet potato farm, and sets off to Shanghai to make something of herself. After packing her wordly possessions (not much) and a long train ride, she finally gets there, and encounters her first problem : where to stay? As it turns out, after much wandering, she finally finds her residence entirely by accident (literally!)

She gets jobs as an extra on films, has a failed relationship with a third rate director, who turns into a bit of a stalker, makes friends, and changes residences many times. All while eating.

The novel is short and sweet. It’s fun and quirky. It’s literally 20 chapters (the fragments) of Fenfang’s life, and more then once I had a chuckle, especially whenever she says “Heavenly Bastard in the Sky.” If you’re looking for a light, quick, witty read (took only a few hours, with a few interruptions from the kids,) then this is a good book.

I originally put this one off for a while after receiving. Even though it looked interesting, after flipping through it and seeing some of technical sketches, I thought the book would be a bit too technical as well. It actually wasn’t, and had an interesting storyline, actually.

Haruto, the main character is a strict rule abiding Japanese inspector, who’s investigating a case. He winds up getting in the middle of a secret deal between Japan and Israel. Robots with sophisticated AI to serve as super soldiers, essentially, in exchange for nuclear weapons to use against Korea. He’s on the run from the law, far from home, and determined to get as much information as possible to expose this plot. I think the last thing he definately expected though was to find love, in an unlikely place. In the end, it almost felt like the Matrix, but reversed.

I liked it though, hoping my friend does too, since I’m passing it on.

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Coming up for reviews soon.. Last Night I Dreamed of Peace (almost done with it,) The Last Queen, The Aviary Gate, The Terminal Spy, hopefully Schooled if it comes soon, Blue Genes, Guernica.. So much to read! Eek!